Although the recall effort failed to take back the Wisconsin Senate, it was still quite an accomplishment to recall two state senators. Thanks to all who fought for sanity. I hope the progressive momentum continues and the recall of Gov. Walker goes forward.

Other stuff to read —

A new poll shows that the recent debt ceiling tantrums hurt Republicans and helped Dems.

Krugman writes about global intellectual failure and the willful refusal to learn from past mistakes.

Another critique of the Westen piece. This piece also underscores the point that when progressives unfavorably compare President Obama to FDR, they are conjuring up an FDR from myth, not the real one. And if you missed this Nate Silver post from 2010 that I linked in comments yesterday, here it is again.

Bottom line, the single biggest reason FDR was more effective at getting his programs passed was not that he was “tougher” or gave better speeches, but that he enjoyed the advantage of an overwhelming majority of Democrats controlling Congress. In Obama’s case, even when he had a slight majority, he had the Blue Dogs in his own party working against him. In effect, he’s never had a real majority at all.

You want more progressive government? Focus on getting more progressives elected to Congress.

I haven’t focused much on the spreading rioting in Britain, but this post from The Guardian points out that “Each of these events was sparked by a different cause, yet all take place against a backdrop of brutal cuts and enforced austerity measures.” Another compares the rioting in London to rioting in Athens in 2008 and says, “Both happened on the watch of conservative governments that refused to even acknowledge, let alone address, underlying discontents.”

We might ask ourselves why we aren’t rioting also. I’m not saying that we should; in the U.S., violent protest nearly always works against the protesters and bolsters the power of the establishment. But it does make me wonder why we’re such bleeping sheep over here.